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Yahoo insiders are so fed up with Marissa Mayer that they've apparently come up with a snarky nickname for her

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer delivers her keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada January 7, 2014. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith/Files
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.  Thomson Reuters

There was a time when Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was considered Yahoo's savior.

Expectations were so high when she was first hired that the company adorned the walls of its headquarters with posters of Mayer, in the style of US President Barack Obama's iconic "Hope" poster.

But a lot has changed in recent years, and support for Mayer is quickly waning at Yahoo, according to a new report by The New York Times.

In fact, employee morale is so low that some people are now calling Mayer "Evita," in reference to Eva Peron, the former wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, known for her rise to power and desire for fame.

Mayer's expected to lose even more support once Yahoo starts laying off more than 10% of its workforce, or over 1,000 employees, in the coming weeks, as first reported by Business Insider's Biz Carson.

The NYT report said that the upcoming layoffs will only add to the total number of departures at Yahoo, which saw more than a third of its workforce leave in the past year alone. Citing a Glassdoor survey, the report said that only 34% of Yahoo employees believe that things are getting better there.

Mayer appears to be losing support internally and externally. Last week, activist investor Starboard sent a letter to Yahoo's board, urging for management change. In December, Eric Jackson, manager of hedge fund SpringOwl, sent a brutal 99-page presentation to Yahoo's board, outlining his case for why the company should drop Marissa Mayer as CEO and find new management.

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Eugene Kim
Eugene is Business Insider’s Chief Tech Correspondent, where he leads coverage of Amazon. His reporting spans the company’s retail and logistics operations to AWS, Alexa, and its internal culture.Previously, he worked at CNBC, Fortune Magazine Korea, and Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun. He holds degrees from NYU and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.In 2022, Eugene reported on internal documents indicating that Amazon allegedly used deceptive tactics to enroll customers in Prime and made cancellation difficult. The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon the following year, citing his reporting. The case ended in a record $2.5 billion settlement in 2025.His work has received multiple honors, including the SF Press Club’s Bay Area Journalism Award and SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award.Eugene lives in the Bay Area. Contact him via email at ekim@jkmperu.com, or Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 650-942-3061. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.